Political Yatris
In the recent times the State of Andhra Pradesh has been a platform for the political yatris. Many party leaders starting a tour on some pretext or the other. Odarpu Yatra, Telangana Yatra and fact finding yatra.
It all started with Jaganmohan Reddy, son of the former Chief Minister of A.P. Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy starting the "Odarpu Yatra" to console the bereaved families who have lost their dear ones in the aftermath of YSR's death, supposedly unable to bear the grief of seeing their dearest leader depart. I have no comments about the authenticity of this count and the reasons behind their deaths.
The tour started well and he has braved the scorching heat in search of his fortune. There is an undercurrent of sentiment attached to the yatra, you know. Whoever has taken up the "padayatra" has been successful in the past. The best case to prove it is none other than Jagan's own father. Taking a leaf or two from his father, from whom he did not get just his blood but aspirations too(sic.), Jagan wanted to undertake yatra to get the gaddi of Chief Ministership of A.P. If only desires are horses!
The second leg of the tour was mired in controversies as he started touring the region of Telangana in the midst of Telangana Rashtra Samiti opposing his tour, for reasons better known to them alone. So much of drama and action was there for the footage hungry electronic media, which has culminated in the arrest of Jagan leading to the abrupt stoppage of the yatra.
Unable to fathom the ignominy, he has read the fine print. To be or not to be was the Hamletian dilemma he has faced; if he discontinues his odarpu yatra, he might lose his supporters and chelas who have their own vested interests for continuity of their businesses among other things. On the other side, if he goes ahead with his yatra disobeying the Congress High Command, he might be facing severe action for his indiscipline. So he has chosen the second option - to go ahead with his tour plans. Atleast he would be seen by some fringe supporters and sympathisers as the one who would go to any length to fulfil his ambitions. If he faces any disciplinary action by the party, he would get some glory as a martyr and he can flout a new party to nurture his dream of coming to power. His game plan is not without reason. If he is not going on yatra, what else he will do now! Atleast he will be in the news for some time now and who knows gauge his stakes.
But our own maverick ex-CM N.Chandrababu Naidu has stolen his media space for 5 days to say the least. He is in an even unenviable position now what with elections in the Telangana region. He is not in a position to tour the region with the threats from TRS and its subsidiaries in the region. He had a perfectly knit gameplan of going on a yatra, a fact finding mission this to Maharashtra to visit the Babli dam site. Maharashtra has gone ahead with the installation of crest gates which will ensure that unless there are floods or very heavy rains, the lower riparian regions of Telangana would go dry. An estimated acreage of 75 Lakh or so(do not mind about the figures, I am very poor in statistics) would become barren and has to solely depend on the rainfall. How unfair is this! So this point has come to Babu's mind as a godsend opportunity to avoid electioneering where the threat of TRS and Naxalites was looming large. This reminds me of the great Balarama, the brother of Sri Krishna, who wanted to avoid being with either of the warring groups at Kurukshetra. So he went on a pilgrimage. What a parallel this. The present day politician cannot afford to go on a pilgrimage, so take up any public cause and go on a yatra. The purpose is served but only for less than a week. People forgot the Jagan Yatra as well as the KCR's election yatra with choicest expletives and abuses on every other person, all in the name of Telangana. By this time KCR has decided whom he is going to keep as Chief Minister and whom as Deputy Chief Minister after the formation of the Telangana state. NCN was successful in hogging the limelight for closer to a week but could not sustain with our good old man, the present C.M. Rosaiah, playing a spoilsport to ensure that NCN would not take full credit for highlighting a genuine cause.
Finally it is KCR and his pet theme of sentiment winning with laurels. With no other party in a position to canvass for the main political parties of TDP and Congress, it is all the way TRS and the sentiment having the last laugh. Nothing works like sentiment in people's minds. In all probability I foresee a sweep by TRS in this forced by-elections of the region. It is another thing that there is no guarantee that these people will not resign once again on some pretext or the other. What matters is emotions of the people. Who else can gauge people's mind other than our guile KCR! So the Telangana bus yatra and election yatra will be succeeding in their mission of making the resigned MLAs win the elections again so that next time when something unfavourable thing happens, they can resign again. They should take lessons from the experiences of the leader of the yesteryears, late VP Singh, who has resigned everytime to reap higher benefits in his political career.
All the yatras and yatris apart, what comes to my mind is how in the future, wars would be waged, not for fuel or food but over sharing of waters. It need not be between nations, but even between the riparian states; the upper riparian states not willing to part with the excess water for the sake of the lower ones. Politicians would play oblivious to these glaring problems. Any political yatra is for the betterment of the politicians, that is the bottomline. Cause is only a bonus.
It all started with Jaganmohan Reddy, son of the former Chief Minister of A.P. Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy starting the "Odarpu Yatra" to console the bereaved families who have lost their dear ones in the aftermath of YSR's death, supposedly unable to bear the grief of seeing their dearest leader depart. I have no comments about the authenticity of this count and the reasons behind their deaths.
The tour started well and he has braved the scorching heat in search of his fortune. There is an undercurrent of sentiment attached to the yatra, you know. Whoever has taken up the "padayatra" has been successful in the past. The best case to prove it is none other than Jagan's own father. Taking a leaf or two from his father, from whom he did not get just his blood but aspirations too(sic.), Jagan wanted to undertake yatra to get the gaddi of Chief Ministership of A.P. If only desires are horses!
The second leg of the tour was mired in controversies as he started touring the region of Telangana in the midst of Telangana Rashtra Samiti opposing his tour, for reasons better known to them alone. So much of drama and action was there for the footage hungry electronic media, which has culminated in the arrest of Jagan leading to the abrupt stoppage of the yatra.
Unable to fathom the ignominy, he has read the fine print. To be or not to be was the Hamletian dilemma he has faced; if he discontinues his odarpu yatra, he might lose his supporters and chelas who have their own vested interests for continuity of their businesses among other things. On the other side, if he goes ahead with his yatra disobeying the Congress High Command, he might be facing severe action for his indiscipline. So he has chosen the second option - to go ahead with his tour plans. Atleast he would be seen by some fringe supporters and sympathisers as the one who would go to any length to fulfil his ambitions. If he faces any disciplinary action by the party, he would get some glory as a martyr and he can flout a new party to nurture his dream of coming to power. His game plan is not without reason. If he is not going on yatra, what else he will do now! Atleast he will be in the news for some time now and who knows gauge his stakes.
But our own maverick ex-CM N.Chandrababu Naidu has stolen his media space for 5 days to say the least. He is in an even unenviable position now what with elections in the Telangana region. He is not in a position to tour the region with the threats from TRS and its subsidiaries in the region. He had a perfectly knit gameplan of going on a yatra, a fact finding mission this to Maharashtra to visit the Babli dam site. Maharashtra has gone ahead with the installation of crest gates which will ensure that unless there are floods or very heavy rains, the lower riparian regions of Telangana would go dry. An estimated acreage of 75 Lakh or so(do not mind about the figures, I am very poor in statistics) would become barren and has to solely depend on the rainfall. How unfair is this! So this point has come to Babu's mind as a godsend opportunity to avoid electioneering where the threat of TRS and Naxalites was looming large. This reminds me of the great Balarama, the brother of Sri Krishna, who wanted to avoid being with either of the warring groups at Kurukshetra. So he went on a pilgrimage. What a parallel this. The present day politician cannot afford to go on a pilgrimage, so take up any public cause and go on a yatra. The purpose is served but only for less than a week. People forgot the Jagan Yatra as well as the KCR's election yatra with choicest expletives and abuses on every other person, all in the name of Telangana. By this time KCR has decided whom he is going to keep as Chief Minister and whom as Deputy Chief Minister after the formation of the Telangana state. NCN was successful in hogging the limelight for closer to a week but could not sustain with our good old man, the present C.M. Rosaiah, playing a spoilsport to ensure that NCN would not take full credit for highlighting a genuine cause.
Finally it is KCR and his pet theme of sentiment winning with laurels. With no other party in a position to canvass for the main political parties of TDP and Congress, it is all the way TRS and the sentiment having the last laugh. Nothing works like sentiment in people's minds. In all probability I foresee a sweep by TRS in this forced by-elections of the region. It is another thing that there is no guarantee that these people will not resign once again on some pretext or the other. What matters is emotions of the people. Who else can gauge people's mind other than our guile KCR! So the Telangana bus yatra and election yatra will be succeeding in their mission of making the resigned MLAs win the elections again so that next time when something unfavourable thing happens, they can resign again. They should take lessons from the experiences of the leader of the yesteryears, late VP Singh, who has resigned everytime to reap higher benefits in his political career.
All the yatras and yatris apart, what comes to my mind is how in the future, wars would be waged, not for fuel or food but over sharing of waters. It need not be between nations, but even between the riparian states; the upper riparian states not willing to part with the excess water for the sake of the lower ones. Politicians would play oblivious to these glaring problems. Any political yatra is for the betterment of the politicians, that is the bottomline. Cause is only a bonus.
Its very nice article Sir!! people are watching all yatras ! Its giving entertainment than films
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